Several years ago, when Pat Smith moved to Yankton after retiring from decades of teaching elementary school in Crofton, she certainly did not anticipate getting so involved in activities in her new hometown that she’d be named a Volunteer of the Month.

But the new life she has built for herself here has turned out to be a life of service, and Yankton United Way & Volunteer Services presented her with just that award for January 2011.

How did it happen? “Well, I needed to do something and I needed people.” She found things to do and new friends in two places – the apartment building in which she lives and the opportunities for service that Yankton provides.

Those service opportunities were first presented in a bulletin announcement at Trinity Lutheran Church, which began, “We need . . .” The possibility of quilting first caught her attention, but, when she went into the Volunteer Missions office at the church, she found Joanne Christensen, Volunteer Coordinator, who, according to Pat, said, “Why don’t you go into this room and start doing that?”

That initial visit has turned into an estimated 240+ hours a year of steady service through her church. Pat works every Monday from 9 to noon, mostly on Lutheran World Relief efforts – sorting through donations; making up health, school, and infant kits; combing through material to find fabric good enough for quilts; and a lot more.

Christensen says, “Pat does a very wide range of activities. She is SO willing to do anything she is asked to do.” The morning of this interview, Pat had been cutting up no-longer-wearable men’s and women’s suits for quilt pieces and had delivered food to the Contact Center.
 

Then she’s back at the church on Tuesday mornings, theoretically from 9 to 11, but often until nearly noon. This is when the quilters meet, making the warm – “not fancy” – blankets for use overseas. Pat gets material together for the quilts, and sews, sometimes taking sewing projects home, too.

And then there are her other volunteer activities. Someone in her apartment building asked her to join Friends of the Library, and now she is one of their stalwarts at monthly book sales and other fundraising events.

Pat is also on the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity of Yankton County, and is a go-to person, again, for whatever needs doing. Except, she notes, “I am not a builder, obviously!”

She helps with moneymaking events like the rummage sale and horseback ride, drives prisoner crews to and from job sites, makes phone calls, and brings lunches to work crews. Only sandwiches, however; “I’m not much of a cook!” she says.

And she’s a member of the Willowdale Quilters, a group that meets monthly to, among other things, make quilts for different organizations to raffle. Plus she helps the first Sunday of each month with Trinity’s weekly breakfasts between services, has worked at the Banquet, and is often a driver for friends in need, including for doctors’ appointments in Sioux City and Sioux Falls.

Pat spends each Wednesday in Vermillion with her 91-year-old mother, helping make it possible for her to stay in her own home. They do some cleaning, grocery shopping, and other errands, and catch up on the rest of the family – a younger brother in Vermillion; two older sisters, one in Minnesota and one in Sioux City; two nephews, three great-nephews, and two great-nieces, all in Minnesota.

The constants in all these activities, including time spent socializing with a new group of friends from the apartment building and beyond, are what she was looking for when she moved to Yankton – something to do and people to do it with.

Now it’s hard for Pat to believe that these simple wishes have led to a life recognized for volunteering. She tried to put her surprise into words: “I don’t really think I . . . compared to what some people do . . .” For her, she just enjoys “all the people I meet and the fact that it’s something different every day.”

Her advice to others is simple: “Just think about how lucky you’ve been in your life and how blessed you are, and what you can do to give back to the community.  Then get out there, and find something to do and some people to do it with.”